Erica Morini

Austrian-American violinist, born 5 January 1904 in Vienna, Austria, and died 31 October 1995 in New York City, United States. The daughter of a band director and violin teacher, Oscar Morini, and a pianist and piano teacher, Amalia Morini, née Weissmann, Erika Morini performed as a five-year-old already before the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef. From 1915-1917 she studied violin under Otakar Ševčík at the Wiener Musikakademie. In 1918, she gave her first concert in Berlin under W. Furtwängler, in she performed with the Leipziger Gewandhausorchester directed by A. Nikisch, in 1920 with the Wiener Philharmonikern in Vienna. In 1921, she successfully toured the United States accompanied by her sister Alice Morini-Wolski on the piano, beginning with a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. Between 1921 and 1923, she made a number of recordings for Victor. In 1938, she married the Italian art dealer and manager Felice Siracusano and emigrated to the United States, where she continued her career and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943. Morini focused on the classical romantic violin repertoire. As the greatest violinist of her time, she inherited Maud Powell's Guadagni violin.